This video discusses alcoholism and its correlation to suicide. In the social environment this is very problematic and something that social workers have to constantly deal with, especially with the recent suicides that have been happening. Alcohol and depression have huge effects on how you act in the social environment therefore important to be aware of them.
This clip from the day time show, "The View" speaks about the double standards found in gender and ageism.
Gender Roles- Interviews with Kids This video shows how gender stereotyping and sense of gender identity are recognizable at a very young age. HBSE theories touch on all types of diversity and how it affects a person's development: including gender.
This blog correlates to HBSE because depression is a mental illness that effects many individuals and it is something that social workers have to assist their clients with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsy3BblcjCA
This you tube video correlates with the Social Constructionist theory of one of the theoretical Bases of knowledge about human behavior, which influence how we act in our social environment. Disney is only one example of how gender roles are reinforced in our society and lead to problems when individuals do not fit the very rigid roles they have been taught. They can lead to identity crisis and needed help by a social worker or a counselor to be able to handle the conflict of who they are from what they have been taught. In this following video, we can see how young children have already been influenced by gender roles and who is capable or able to do what.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrPEo6tBTnk
This video has to do with Drug addicts and how they beg for money to pay for the drugs that they live on. There are not able to be social becasue they are begging for money not to help themselfs but to pay for a habit.
Updated: 11:18 AM Nov 11, 2010 Ageism in the Workforce It's hard enough to get a job in this economy, but according to the Labor Department, it's even harder for people 55 and older. Posted: 10:00 PM Nov 10, 2010 Reporter: Lisa McDivitt Email Address: [[mailto:LMcdivitt@kktv.com?subject=Ageism in the Workforce|LMcdivitt@kktv.com]]
It's hard enough to get a job in this economy, but according to the Labor Department, it's even harder for people 55 and older. Sometimes it's just that employers are looking for people who are going to stay in a job longer. Or, applicants don't have the kind of skills or training an employer is looking for. But experts say that age discrimination is a very real thing.
Karen Bartlett has been looking for a job for the past 5 months. "I have a degree in finance. And I spent, I won't say how long, my first part of my working history in insurance." She moved to Colorado Springs eight years ago, and since then, she's worked at several different companies, and was the victim of downsizing in each of them. "It looks like I'm a job hopper, and I'm not," said Bartlett. "I am trying so hard to find a job that I can stay at for a long period of time." That job search has been frustrating, and it's forced her to change everything from what kind of work she does, to how much she'll get paid for it. "I'm doing just general administrative office work. Anything from a receptionist, bookkeeping, file clerk. I don't care. I'm very open minded," she said. "Just this past week, I had to lower my pay expectations, which is already significantly less than I used to make." The Pikes Peak Workforce Center says that more than half of the job seekers they work with are above the age of 40. Often, these clients have more hurdles to overcome than younger job seekers. Not only are there typically hundreds of applicants for each job opening, but employers will often apply certain stereotypes. "It is a bias that's there," said Dana Rodenbaugh, Vice President of the PPWFC. "It's a factor. It goes on when resumes and applications are looked at." Bartlett says she doesn't think her trouble finding a job is a matter of age discrimination, but she does believe some of her struggle is based on the fact that younger applicants are more adept at certain computer programs. "Younger people that have been exposed to it for a longer period of time," she said. But another job seeker in Bartlett's networking group says he believes that age discrimination does exist. "Somebody who's maybe 40 or younger might be more attractive because they're going to be there longer and they come in at a lower pay rate," said Richard Kemp, who is looking for a job in government affairs, and has started his own business after being laid off from his last company. Rodenbaugh says that lower pay rate is just one of several things employers might be looking for. "What's my energy level?" Rodenbaugh said. "We all, of a certain age, get affected by that, in terms of what's my health in general, and then also my train-ability." Bartlett says she's been working to increase her proficiency with programs like Excel. But she's also trying to stay positive, and highlight some of the attributes her age and experience offer. "More mature workers, we're trying to find something that we can stay with," she said. "And we're not going to be calling in with a hangover every other day," she added with a laugh. Here's something interesting for job seekers: according to Rodenbaugh, employers are within their rights to ask applicants many different questions, including your age. However, he added, doing so will definitely leave an employer open for a lawsuit, if they end up going with a candidate who is half your age.
^^This article about ageism is another good example of HBSE becasue it shows cultural differences and the difficulties some groups face in today's society.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
This YouTube video of the scene from Pocahontas demonstrates HBSE by including racial, cultural, and ethnic differences as well as ethnocentrism. helps social workers firmly grasp developing issues in human behavior theories
Holidays can remind us just how truly fortunate we are, but for many children around the world, they don't even have your basic necessities. Our Amanda Kelley tells us more about a local effort that's helping kids in more than 100 countries. To view our videos, you need to enable JavaScript. Learn how. install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- An entire room filled with very special shoe boxes. It's an operation to help children in need around the world. Operation Christmas Child Area Coordinator Patty Jennings said, "Everything in that box, the soap, the pencils, is such a blessing to them and they are appreciative of everything. They're so wowed by it all. These are kids that have never received a gift in their life, so to have something like this is huge." Operation Christmas Child sends boxes filled with essential items to under privileged children. Thousands of boxes made right here in Jefferson County. Jennings said, "Individuals bring them, churches, we've had schools involved, sororities, clubs, anybody that wants to do it." And the project is also raising awareness among local youth. Watertown resident and school teacher Rebecca Lane said, "I brought it into my classroom this year. They actually packed the boxes for me. It was a group effort and the kids they didn't realize the hardships other kids have, so they had a great time doing it." Watertown resident Trace Bovier said, "I think it would make us feel like we have more and we should be thankful for all the things that we do have and try to share with them." Although the gifts are simple, they provide big opportunities. Jennings said, "To have these things it opens the door for them to be able to go to school. It opens the door for better hygiene, things that they just can't afford." And with how easy they are to send, it leaves volunteers wanting to give more. Lane said, "It's amazing, yet on the other side, you never feel like you give enough." Simple boxes, that go a very long way. ^This article about Operation Christmas Child is another example of HBSE because it demonstrates people coming together to combat a social problem in their local area.
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Dimensions of Practice: Human Behavior in the Social Environment
Definition: Exploring the complex interrelatedness of individuals and the various systems that comprise their social environment. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding how race, ethnicity, culture, gender, and socioeconomic factors contribute to and influence personal development and the social functioning of individuals and family systems.
Social work education programs (BSW and MSW) are required to prepare all students to demonstrate mastery of ten core competencies.
It is difficult to imagine that competence in HBSE can be achieved without including content related to the other core competencies:
The development of your professional identity as a social worker
Ethical behaviors and dilemmas
Critical thinking skills
Human diversity
Research-informed practice and practice-informed research
Social policy practice
The processes involved in doing social work
Theories of human behavior and development
• Psychopathology/Symptomatology
• Racial, ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic differences
• Social problems
• Diversity associated with gender, age, sexual orientation and disability
• Strengths and stressors in the social environmenthttp:www.helpstartshere.org/kids-and-families/family-safety/family-safety-–-how-social-workers-help-working-with-male-batterers-–-how-social-workers-help.html
Understanding HBSE 6th ed.^This is a title page to a book I found that is about HBSE. It covers all types of diversity that could be addressed at the macro and mezzo level of social work.
**
5. Human Behavior in the Social Environment
In keeping with social work's person-in-environment focus, students need knowledge of individuals as they develop over the life span and have membership in families, groups, organizations, and communities; students need knowledge of the relationshipshttp://www.helpstartshere.org/kids-and-families/family-safety/family-safety-–-how-social-workers-help-working-with-male-batterers-–-how-social-workers-help.htmlamong human biological, social psychological, and cultural systems as they affect and are affected by human behavior.
(from the NASW)**
Family Safety – How Social Workers Help: Working with Male Batterers – How Social Workers Help
By Katherine van Wormer, MSSW, PhD|| || Introduction ||
Domestic violence remains a major cause of physical and psychological injury to women. Estimates from the U.S. Department of Justice are that at least 85% of the victims of this crime are women. Women are far more likely to be injured and even killed by such acts of aggression as are men. In light of these facts, the focus of this article is on men.
Recognizing the need to address domestic abuse as a growing public health issue, batterer treatment programs have been developed to treat individuals who use violence toward an intimate partner. Batterer intervention programs provide judges with an option other than incarceration. Their philosophy is consistent with a belief in rehabilitation rather than retribution.
The basic goal of batterer intervention programs is to eliminate family violence through helping batterers change their behavior and attitudes. Secondary goals are to teach effective communication techniques and develop social problem-solving skills.
Developed in the early 1980s, The Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Program (DAIP) has been a revolutionary force in its creation of a coordinated community response to domestic violence. Reforms in the criminal justice system to meet the needs of victims of violence have taken place accordingly.
The components of the model include pro-arrest or mandatory arrest policies, follow-up support and advocacy for victims, prosecution, monitoring of offender compliance with probation conditions, and court-mandated participation in batterer intervention programs.
Typically, persons arrested for domestic violence are mandated to complete a state-approved batterer treatment program as an alternative to incarceration.
The Duluth Model Education Group design is based on the premise that violence is used by men in order to control women’s behavior and reinforce male dominance. Its focus is therefore on reducing batterers’ power over their victims, and teaching these men new relationship skills. The curriculum is built around the Power and Control Wheel (available at www.duluth-model.org).
The Wheel was constructed as a teaching aid and based on input from 200 battered women. Facilitators teach batterers about how they have used various strategies which are represented on the cogs of the wheel to maintain control. Examples are economic abuse, using male privilege, and using children. From this perspective facilitators are expected to avoid getting sidetracked by discussion of participants’ personal problems, and to maintain a continuous focus on power and control tactics and methods for changing them.
In contrast to a “one size fits all” approach, social workers tend to view the causes of domestic violence as multifaceted. This approach is consistent with research revealing that biological and psychological as well as social factors are all involved in intimate partner violence.
Biological factors in violence are sometimes overlooked. Empirically based studies have linked interpersonal violence and poor impulse control with biological conditions such as low serotonin levels in the brain, high testosterone production, and brain damage from head injury.
Alcohol and drug addiction may be related factors in that they reduce inhibitions to violence. Intoxication also negatively affects one’s cognitive functions and elicits irrational thought. The combination of unemployment status, heavy binge drinking, and approval of violence is significantly associated with a high rate of wife/partner abuse.
A biological proclivity toward aggression, however, does not necessarily mean control is totally absent. For example, these men often do not attack people outside their family but displace their aggression onto family members. This seems to indicate a psychological component to their violence.
Many batterers have difficulties involving an inner sense of insecurity; this often results in extreme bouts of jealousy, suspiciousness, and possessiveness. Yet such men are frequently unaware of any feelings other than anger. Suffering from an inability to openly communicate with others, they see themselves as powerless victims.
Violent men have been found, in hypothetical jealousy-provoking situations, to consistently misinterpret their wives’ motives as intentionally hostile. Nonviolent men in a comparison group did not feel personally threatened by the same scenarios. Their own overdependence on their spouses causes these men to resent, hate, and sometimes even kill them.
Social factors link violence against women to cultural expectations. In families in which men are expected to beat their wives when drunk, they will be inclined to do so. Such men have internalized distortions of masculinity rooted in their social upbringing. In many parts of the world, violence against women is the norm.
Social workers, as mentioned above, tend to treat battering holistically, with attention paid to biological, psychological, and social components. Interventions aimed at the biological level may include a referral to a substance abuse treatment center, to a self-help group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, or to a mental health center for a psychiatric evaluation.
Psychologically, treatment of battering men is geared to helping them replace irrational thought patterns involving jealousy and control issues with more functional thinking and behavior. A positive cognitive approach may also help them abandon their egocentric worldview as they learn to tap into their own inner strengths and acknowledge the good in others.
Treatment for batterers begins with establishing a relationship and motivating the participants to work on their issues. Strategies of motivational enhancement are highly effective in work with reluctant clients who have been court-ordered into treatment. Motivational interviewing directs interventions toward the client’s individual level of readiness to change. (Learn about these techniques at www.motivationalinterview.org ).
A minority of the batterers have a character disorder such as antisocial personality that makes them unsuitable for treatment. These types can be weeded out through standardized psychological tests. Experiments conducted by psychologists have demonstrated that these types of batterers lack normal emotional responses to the pain of others, that they are completely insensitive. Such men are not considered amenable to change, and could pose a threat to all concerned.
Treating battering men in groups attends to the social side of treatment. Ideally, men’s batterer groups will be led by a male/female team. Ideally a male co-facilitator will model attitudes and behaviors for the group members.
The challenges facing the leader of a male batterers group are many. First, there is much defensiveness to overcome. And secondly, as is typical of victimizers, many of these men perceive themselves as victims: victims of the system, of the mass media, and of their partners. Accordingly, a study of the Power and Control Wheel can be expected to have little meaning for them.
A strengths approach makes use of personal narratives to help clients discover where their fears and distrusts are coming from, while simultaneously coming to recognize some of their hidden strengths. An exploration of family-of-origin issues may be elicited in this way as well. Group feedback is invaluable in helping members develop insight concerning their tendencies to overreact to certain situations that arise in a relationship.
An effective strategy is to invite victim-offender panels to give a presentation before the group. Panel members may be battered women who are unknown to group members. The panel might also include men who were victims of child abuse. In hearing the stories of pain and suffering that the crimes of violence engendered, offenders not only may get in tune with their own past victimization, but often they may feel empathy for the victims as people who were hurt by the careless or cruel behavior of others.
Social workers are uniquely capable of working with these issues from a holistic perspective. They frequently work with male batterers in individual and group situations. They also, even more frequently, work with women who have been victimized by their spouses and partners. They are aware, therefore, of the magnitude of domestic violence, of the need for treatments of proven effectiveness to put a stop to such violence, and to support healthy relationships.
(^ This is an article by Dr. Katherine van Wormer, who is active and civil rights and peace movements and has recently published a two set series on human behavior and social environment)
Grief and Loss Tip Sheet – Three Questions About Widows, Widowers, and Their Relationships
By LeslieBeth (LB) Wish, Ed.D, MSS=====Introduction===== Dr. L.B. (LeslieBeth) Wish is a psychologist and social worker. Wish. She has been a speaker for non-profit, corporate and university organizations. Dr. Wish offers sound, research-based relationship advice that makes sense — specializing in issues such as smart dating, women’s relationship advice, career coaching, healthy families, sexual dysfunction, and leadership training. To learn more about Dr. Wish please visit her Web site: http://www.lovevictory.com/.
Few of us want to be alone in our later years, yet anyone who is married or in a long-term committed relationship knows that the chance of facing widowhood is high—especially for women who live slightly longer. Here are the three top questions of many widows and widowers. Q. Should I date or look for love again—and how soon?
Several studies indicate that widowers begin to date by around the sixth month. Women tend to wait until approximately the ninth month. However, these numbers are just an average. The range of time is much greater—some people never date again and others date by the third month.
But time plays only one part in the decision of when to date. Studies also reveal that the degree of happiness in the relationship can affect how soon a person feels comfortable dating or falling in love again. A widowed partner who comes from a mutually satisfying relationship tends to take longer to find love. That person knows what it takes to sustain fulfillment and growth. The commitment to each other has taught the importance of recognizing needs and priorities—and the newly widowed doesn’t want to compromise.
On the other hand, a person who was not happy in the previous relationship tends to date and look for love more quickly. The person knows that time is running out. These widower and widows often think, “I want to know what love is before I die.”
If you are widowed, however, your best strategy is to do what feels comfortable. Give yourself permission to live life again. Life is most definitely short, and most spouses or partners want the surviving person to be happy. And don’t forget that wildcard pair of luck and timing. Just because you stumble across someone who is right for you soon after widowhood doesn’t mean you weren’t happy previously. Finally, regardless of your age, date smart. Take your time to get to know the person, date as friends first and don’t lend any money. Q. What do I do if my grown kids don’t like my new partner—or even the idea of my dating?
Losing a spouse is difficult enough, and when grown children cannot accept parental dating and new love, the surviving spouse feels as though he or she is losing the entire family. The bad news is that the surviving spouse should heed the family’s warnings. The good news is that the surviving spouse should NOT heed the family’s warnings.
What should a widowed spouse do? That spouse should begin by valuing all input—but also keeping an eye on why the children are not supportive. Children, especially grown ones, might have difficulty “changing emotional gears.” They might not be able to imagine anyone else living in the family home or kissing the parent. If the new love is very different in personality from the deceased spouse, the adult children might have especial difficulties accepting the new person. These children often have a set view of the parent’s marriage, and seeing a very different kind of love choice can disrupt their beliefs about men, women, love and marriage. Sound advice for the surviving partner includes:
Take your time to fall in love. Get to know your new partner.
Tell your children that you will always value and remember their parent.
Explain to your children that you and their deceased parent talked about wanting the survivor to “move on” in life, including finding love again.
In the beginning, don’t express physical affection to the new love in front of the children.
Don’t immediately move your new love into your home—or move into his or hers.
Other times, however, grown children do have legitimate concerns, which include:
Dating and becoming serious too soon
Not knowing the person very well
Choosing a poor match to avoid being alone. Poor matches might be a person with substance abuse or mental health problems or someone who expects the widowed spouse to take on the emotional and financial responsibility for the new love’s children—especially troubled children.
Lending or giving money or rescuing the new love from his difficult life.
Q. I’m part of the sandwich generation, so how do I deal with living with my daughter’s family?
It’s not unusual for surviving spouses to move in with adult children and family. Sometimes, the surviving spouse has financial or health needs. Regardless of the reasons for becoming a “sandwich generation” family where grandparents, parents and children all live together, this newly formed family must develop House Rules.
Pro-active families have most likely already developed chores and expectations for their children, and they should now develop new ones in response to the changes in the family. For example, widows might be expected to take care of their own linens or buy their own food.
Often, the widowed parent moves in with the extended family because he or she requires assistance with living. The widowed person might be physically fragile or mentally limited due to events such as strokes or the onset of dementia. Families, as well as the widower or widower, frequently underestimate these medical needs and are later frustrated at the demands of care.
Consequently, the addition of the widowed parent means that the House Rules need to be adjusted to the new circumstances, especially emotional issues. Usually, when a widowed parent moves into the adult child’s home, the current or dormant problems in the parent-child relationship get activated. For example, if the parent and adult child are—or were–argumentative and critical of each other, they risk bringing that kind of relationship into the adult child’s home.
The surviving widows, adult children and grandchildren should develop together new guidelines of behavior and words—and post them in the kitchen. Instead of singling out one person and seeing that person in a negative light, families can come together and write rules that build positive behaviors and beliefs.
Keep the focus on solutions-with-love rather than complaints. Examples of emotional House Rules might include:
Be kind.
Respect differences.
No unsolicited advice.
No criticism.
No secrets.
Be a role model.
Don’t tattle. Instead, ask the person how the two of you can work on a solution together.
Everyone is in charge of his or her happiness.
See offers to help in areas such as medical or physical needs as offers of care and love—and not control.
Seek nursing, medical or psychological help as soon as you feel frustrated or overwhelmed or when your solutions aren’t working.
Widowhood may be an expected life phase, but experiencing it is never easy for any of the family members. Hopefully, these answers will help you start thinking and acting differently.
(^ This is an article written by Leslie Beth who is known to have worked extensively with single mothers and stepfamilies. This article illustrates a social worker putting into consideration a client's situation and where they are coming from.)This video is an example of HBSE on the mezzo/macro level with students who advocate on behalf of members of the LGBT community having representation in Columbia University's Advisory Council.This YouTube Video shows HBSE at work in an ordinary life. The video shows a correlations between an individual's reaction to a crisis and the life experiences they had previously. HBSE shows how an individual's history can affect their dealing with a psychosocial crisis, such as death. This article shows an issue that social workers often deal with, domestic violence, and puts it in a perspective that considers all aspects of human behavior in the social environment.
Journal of Social Work Education
Article: INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE: AN HBSE PERSPECTIVE.
Article from:
Journal of Social Work Education Article date:March 22, 1999Author:BEGUN, AUDREY L.CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Council On Social Work Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to Customer Support. (Hide copyright information)
This article presents a developmental vulnerability/resilience and
risk/safety framework to educate **social** **work** students about intimate
partner violence. The framework adopts a multidimensional perspective to
understanding development (a) among individuals who are violent toward
intimate partners, (b) among those toward whom they are violent, and (c)
within family systems; it also covers prevailing socio-environmental
contexts. The utility of this framework for Human Behavior in the **Social**
Environment (**HBSE**) education is discussed.
VIOLENCE AMONG INTIMATE PARTNERS is a multicausal, multifaceted phenomenon (Johnson, 1996; McKenry, Julian, & Gavazzi, 1995; Mrazek & Haggerty, 1994), and no single theoretical approach has proven sufficient in satisfactorily explaining it (Gelles & Loeske, 1993b). Fortunately, the field of intimate partner violence research has evolved to a point where now the interactive nature of relevant factors can be considered (McKenry et al., 1995). Socialwork educators need to identify suitable means of educating students about intimate partner violence--means that include frameworks and models encompassing its complex biopsychosocial dynamics. This need stems largely from the importance of the issue to U.S. society and to the socialwork profession, and is indicated by the frequency, intensity, pervasiveness, and concomitants of such violence (Brown, A., 1997; Straus & Gelles, 1990). In addition to the need for students to understand this issue for its own sake, presenting this content serves as a rich medium for students to practice complex problem solving and critical-thinking skills.
A rich tradition of teaching about intimate partner violence exists through several distinct causal theories. For example, there are resources in the professional literature that help students distinguish between the many etiological theories and models, including: theories of social stress, power, and dependency (Wallace, 1996); theories about socialization, biology, relationship factors, problems in living, or individual differences in personality and psychopathology (Barnett, Miller-Perrin, & Perrin, 1997); the psychiatric model, social-situational model, social learning theory, resource theory, ecological perspective, and patriarchy model (Gelles & Cornell, 1990); macro and micro theories (Gondolf, 1993); and psychological, sociological, and feminist perspectives (Gelles & Loeske, 1993a). Because it relies solely upon presentations that simply discriminate between theories, a serious risk accompanies this approach to teaching about complex social issues. It may encourage students to adopt inappropriate strategies toward theory selection, because students are likely to either (1) reject theory as useless or irrelevant, (2) fall into theoretical dogmatism, adopting a particular theory as absolute truth with universal applicability, or (3)embrace an eclectic approach in which the process of combining theories is unsystematic, undisciplined, and poorly informed (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 1998). Instead, some authors recommend that educators promote a "critically reflective approach" to theory (Robbins et al., 1998).
This article presents a developmental framework for educating socialwork students about the dynamics of intimate partner violence. This framework represents a critically reflective and multifactoral approach to synthesizing the various models of intimate partner violence. The vulnerability/resilience and risk/safety approach (1) requires students to consider a particular social problem in a multidimensional person-in-environment manner, (2) encourages adoption of a prevention perspective, (3) allows integration of a diverse body of literature and diverse perspectives, and (4)presents a framework with relevance to a variety of HBSE education topics.
The framework presented here is structured largely in accordance with the vulnerability, risk, and resilience framework for HBSE education offered by Begun (1993). Once a social issue is defined using this approach, the vulnerability continuum, risk continuum, and the interaction of the two are all analyzed (see Figure 1). Each component of the teaching approach is presented with relevant content from the intimate partner violence literature.
[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Problem Definition
The first step in a vulnerability/resilience and risk/safety approach calls for clear definition and identification of the social problem being predicted or prevented--in this case, violence in intimate partner relationships. The term intimate partner has been adopted here to refer to marital, domestic/cohabitative, and intimate dating relationships; it encompasses heterosexual, gay, and lesbian intimate partnerships. The term violence, in this analysis, refers to a broad, extended continuum of behaviors, including threats and actual incidents of physical aggression specifically directed at another person (e.g., hitting, pushing, biting, threatened use of a weapon). It also includes some areas of behavior that are not always addressed: any form of forced sexual contact, destruction of personal property, and threats against a person's loved ones (children, parents, siblings, pets, friends, co-workers, etc.). The violence continuum also includes abusive behaviors that occur within intimate partnerships, such as controlling choices and resources, humiliation and denigration, harassment, stalking, coercion, and so forth.
At the point of problem definition, it would be useful to present socialwork students with exercises in locating local, state, regional, national, and international statistics regarding the incidence and prevalence of intimate partner violence (e.g., those available through state coalition offices or a national hotline).(1) Discussions of the results of their search efforts should include analysis of the limitations associated with the various sources of the data (e.g., definitional confounds, causes of under-reporting). Students for whom this is a relatively new topic may benefit from viewing some of the excellent educational videos, including readily accessible and contemporary public service advertisements (e.g., Safe at Home(2), National Domestic Violence Hotline, or state coalition media campaigns).
Vulnerability/Resiliency Continuum
The next step in this approach involves identification of the recognized vulnerability and resiliency factors associated with the problem. The continuum of vulnerabilities and resiliencies refers to those inherent factors that individuals "bring" to any situation: for example, the intrinsic characteristics contributed through genetics, biology, and constitution; personal history and past experiences; and individual attributes, cognitions, social skills, early developmental events, personality and temperament, and disabilities and abilities (Begun, 1993). Each of these categories represent both elements of resiliency and vulnerability. These categories are explored with reference to the three domains of intimate partner violence: individuals who are violent, individuals toward whom violence is directed, and family systems that embody intimate partner violence. Table 1 presents the vulnerability and resiliency factors across the domains.
The speaker bring up valid points about the root of child's problem often coming from their environment. He comes up with methods for parents to try and follow in order to evaluate the situation instead of making it worse, which I believe correlates to the responsibility of a social worker.
<!--[if gte mso 10]> I found the video to be both interesting and important because these are stereotypes that society instills in us at an early age. They can be extremely detrimental as we get older because we are always compared to these stereotypes and are characterized by how well we fit them.
This clip from the day time show, "The View" speaks about the double standards found in gender and ageism.
Gender Roles- Interviews with Kids This video shows how gender stereotyping and sense of gender identity are recognizable at a very young age. HBSE theories touch on all types of diversity and how it affects a person's development: including gender.
http://www.helpstartshere.org/mind-and-spirit/depression/depression-in-the-elderly.html
This blog correlates to HBSE because depression is a mental illness that effects many individuals and it is something that social workers have to assist their clients with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsy3BblcjCA
This you tube video correlates with the Social Constructionist theory of one of the theoretical Bases of knowledge about human behavior, which influence how we act in our social environment. Disney is only one example of how gender roles are reinforced in our society and lead to problems when individuals do not fit the very rigid roles they have been taught. They can lead to identity crisis and needed help by a social worker or a counselor to be able to handle the conflict of who they are from what they have been taught. In this following video, we can see how young children have already been influenced by gender roles and who is capable or able to do what.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWc1e3Nbc2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIQaBItrRqEa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrPEo6tBTnk
This video has to do with Drug addicts and how they beg for money to pay for the drugs that they live on. There are not able to be social becasue they are begging for money not to help themselfs but to pay for a habit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CwQEhwlt9U
This image helps give a visual to explain how our emotions and actions are determined by the environment we reside in. It looks like a
cycle of life and shows how everything we consider goes back to the environment and its influence on us.
Global Exchange Takes Action on Social, Economic and Environmental Justice- This video is about how people from around the world focus on educatong and allowing others from lower classes to understand and exercise their rights as humans. This video brings in the aspect of Human rights and social and economic justice because the Global Exchange are fighting for justice on many levels
This link is an article I found while looking at how poverty causes more mistrust than race. This is an example of HBSE because it shows how people act based on where they live at in terms of socioeconomic status.
Citizens of New York City remember Black History Month with a mural. It shows the diversity of New York City as well as the remembrance of one of the most important events in our nations history.
Ageism in the Workforce
It's hard enough to get a job in this economy, but according to the Labor Department, it's even harder for people 55 and older.
Posted: 10:00 PM Nov 10, 2010
Reporter: Lisa McDivitt
Email Address: [[mailto:LMcdivitt@kktv.com?subject=Ageism in the Workforce|LMcdivitt@kktv.com]]
- Story
Poll
It's hard enough to get a job in this economy, but according to the Labor Department, it's even harder for people 55 and older.Sometimes it's just that employers are looking for people who are going to stay in a job longer. Or, applicants don't have the kind of skills or training an employer is looking for. But experts say that age discrimination is a very real thing.
Karen Bartlett has been looking for a job for the past 5 months. "I have a degree in finance. And I spent, I won't say how long, my first part of my working history in insurance."
She moved to Colorado Springs eight years ago, and since then, she's worked at several different companies, and was the victim of downsizing in each of them.
"It looks like I'm a job hopper, and I'm not," said Bartlett. "I am trying so hard to find a job that I can stay at for a long period of time."
That job search has been frustrating, and it's forced her to change everything from what kind of work she does, to how much she'll get paid for it.
"I'm doing just general administrative office work. Anything from a receptionist, bookkeeping, file clerk. I don't care. I'm very open minded," she said. "Just this past week, I had to lower my pay expectations, which is already significantly less than I used to make."
The Pikes Peak Workforce Center says that more than half of the job seekers they work with are above the age of 40. Often, these clients have more hurdles to overcome than younger job seekers.
Not only are there typically hundreds of applicants for each job opening, but employers will often apply certain stereotypes.
"It is a bias that's there," said Dana Rodenbaugh, Vice President of the PPWFC. "It's a factor. It goes on when resumes and applications are looked at."
Bartlett says she doesn't think her trouble finding a job is a matter of age discrimination, but she does believe some of her struggle is based on the fact that younger applicants are more adept at certain computer programs. "Younger people that have been exposed to it for a longer period of time," she said.
But another job seeker in Bartlett's networking group says he believes that age discrimination does exist.
"Somebody who's maybe 40 or younger might be more attractive because they're going to be there longer and they come in at a lower pay rate," said Richard Kemp, who is looking for a job in government affairs, and has started his own business after being laid off from his last company.
Rodenbaugh says that lower pay rate is just one of several things employers might be looking for. "What's my energy level?" Rodenbaugh said. "We all, of a certain age, get affected by that, in terms of what's my health in general, and then also my train-ability."
Bartlett says she's been working to increase her proficiency with programs like Excel. But she's also trying to stay positive, and highlight some of the attributes her age and experience offer.
"More mature workers, we're trying to find something that we can stay with," she said. "And we're not going to be calling in with a hangover every other day," she added with a laugh.
Here's something interesting for job seekers: according to Rodenbaugh, employers are within their rights to ask applicants many different questions, including your age. However, he added, doing so will definitely leave an employer open for a lawsuit, if they end up going with a candidate who is half your age.
^^This article about ageism is another good example of HBSE becasue it shows cultural differences and the difficulties some groups face in today's society.
This YouTube video of the scene from Pocahontas demonstrates HBSE by including racial, cultural, and ethnic differences as well as ethnocentrism.
helps social workers firmly grasp developing issues in human behavior theories
Holidays can remind us just how truly fortunate we are, but for many children around the world, they don't even have your basic necessities. Our Amanda Kelley tells us more about a local effort that's helping kids in more than 100 countries.
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WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- An entire room filled with very special shoe boxes. It's an operation to help children in need around the world.
Operation Christmas Child Area Coordinator Patty Jennings said, "Everything in that box, the soap, the pencils, is such a blessing to them and they are appreciative of everything. They're so wowed by it all. These are kids that have never received a gift in their life, so to have something like this is huge."
Operation Christmas Child sends boxes filled with essential items to under privileged children. Thousands of boxes made right here in Jefferson County.
Jennings said, "Individuals bring them, churches, we've had schools involved, sororities, clubs, anybody that wants to do it."
And the project is also raising awareness among local youth.
Watertown resident and school teacher Rebecca Lane said, "I brought it into my classroom this year. They actually packed the boxes for me. It was a group effort and the kids they didn't realize the hardships other kids have, so they had a great time doing it."
Watertown resident Trace Bovier said, "I think it would make us feel like we have more and we should be thankful for all the things that we do have and try to share with them."
Although the gifts are simple, they provide big opportunities.
Jennings said, "To have these things it opens the door for them to be able to go to school. It opens the door for better hygiene, things that they just can't afford."
And with how easy they are to send, it leaves volunteers wanting to give more.
Lane said, "It's amazing, yet on the other side, you never feel like you give enough."
Simple boxes, that go a very long way.
^This article about Operation Christmas Child is another example of HBSE because it demonstrates people coming together to combat a social problem in their local area.
Definition: Exploring the complex interrelatedness of individuals and the various systems that comprise their social environment. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding how race, ethnicity, culture, gender, and socioeconomic factors contribute to and influence personal development and the social functioning of individuals and family systems.
Social work education programs (BSW and MSW) are required to prepare all students to demonstrate mastery of ten core competencies.
It is difficult to imagine that competence in HBSE can be achieved without including content related to the other core competencies:
The development of your professional identity as a social worker
Ethical behaviors and dilemmas
Critical thinking skills
Human diversity
Research-informed practice and practice-informed research
Social policy practice
The processes involved in doing social work
Theories of human behavior and development
• Psychopathology/Symptomatology
• Racial, ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic differences
• Social problems
• Diversity associated with gender, age, sexual orientation and disability
• Strengths and stressors in the social environmenthttp:www.helpstartshere.org/kids-and-families/family-safety/family-safety-–-how-social-workers-help-working-with-male-batterers-–-how-social-workers-help.html
This article relates to the human behavior in social environments because it shows how these displaced citizens, one in particular who experienced change when placed in a certain environment. They are willing to change themselves when placed in a positive environment and as a social worker, you have to be able to find resources like this coalition did for the people they were supporting as well as empowering the people in any way. I wanted to use a current events article to display how HBSE is seen in the real world and out of the books.
Understanding HBSE 6th ed.^This is a title page to a book I found that is about HBSE. It covers all types of diversity that could be addressed at the macro and mezzo level of social work.
**
5. Human Behavior in the Social Environment
In keeping with social work's person-in-environment focus, students need knowledge of individuals as they develop over the life span and have membership in families, groups, organizations, and communities; students need knowledge of the relationshipshttp://www.helpstartshere.org/kids-and-families/family-safety/family-safety-–-how-social-workers-help-working-with-male-batterers-–-how-social-workers-help.htmlamong human biological, social psychological, and cultural systems as they affect and are affected by human behavior.(from the NASW)**
Family Safety – How Social Workers Help: Working with Male Batterers – How Social Workers Help
By Katherine van Wormer, MSSW, PhD||Domestic violence remains a major cause of physical and psychological injury to women. Estimates from the U.S. Department of Justice are that at least 85% of the victims of this crime are women. Women are far more likely to be injured and even killed by such acts of aggression as are men. In light of these facts, the focus of this article is on men.
Recognizing the need to address domestic abuse as a growing public health issue, batterer treatment programs have been developed to treat individuals who use violence toward an intimate partner. Batterer intervention programs provide judges with an option other than incarceration. Their philosophy is consistent with a belief in rehabilitation rather than retribution.
The basic goal of batterer intervention programs is to eliminate family violence through helping batterers change their behavior and attitudes. Secondary goals are to teach effective communication techniques and develop social problem-solving skills.
Developed in the early 1980s, The Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Program (DAIP) has been a revolutionary force in its creation of a coordinated community response to domestic violence. Reforms in the criminal justice system to meet the needs of victims of violence have taken place accordingly.
The components of the model include pro-arrest or mandatory arrest policies, follow-up support and advocacy for victims, prosecution, monitoring of offender compliance with probation conditions, and court-mandated participation in batterer intervention programs.
Typically, persons arrested for domestic violence are mandated to complete a state-approved batterer treatment program as an alternative to incarceration.
The Duluth Model Education Group design is based on the premise that violence is used by men in order to control women’s behavior and reinforce male dominance. Its focus is therefore on reducing batterers’ power over their victims, and teaching these men new relationship skills. The curriculum is built around the Power and Control Wheel (available at www.duluth-model.org).
The Wheel was constructed as a teaching aid and based on input from 200 battered women. Facilitators teach batterers about how they have used various strategies which are represented on the cogs of the wheel to maintain control. Examples are economic abuse, using male privilege, and using children. From this perspective facilitators are expected to avoid getting sidetracked by discussion of participants’ personal problems, and to maintain a continuous focus on power and control tactics and methods for changing them.
In contrast to a “one size fits all” approach, social workers tend to view the causes of domestic violence as multifaceted. This approach is consistent with research revealing that biological and psychological as well as social factors are all involved in intimate partner violence.
Biological factors in violence are sometimes overlooked. Empirically based studies have linked interpersonal violence and poor impulse control with biological conditions such as low serotonin levels in the brain, high testosterone production, and brain damage from head injury.
Alcohol and drug addiction may be related factors in that they reduce inhibitions to violence. Intoxication also negatively affects one’s cognitive functions and elicits irrational thought. The combination of unemployment status, heavy binge drinking, and approval of violence is significantly associated with a high rate of wife/partner abuse.
A biological proclivity toward aggression, however, does not necessarily mean control is totally absent. For example, these men often do not attack people outside their family but displace their aggression onto family members. This seems to indicate a psychological component to their violence.
Many batterers have difficulties involving an inner sense of insecurity; this often results in extreme bouts of jealousy, suspiciousness, and possessiveness. Yet such men are frequently unaware of any feelings other than anger. Suffering from an inability to openly communicate with others, they see themselves as powerless victims.
Violent men have been found, in hypothetical jealousy-provoking situations, to consistently misinterpret their wives’ motives as intentionally hostile. Nonviolent men in a comparison group did not feel personally threatened by the same scenarios. Their own overdependence on their spouses causes these men to resent, hate, and sometimes even kill them.
Social factors link violence against women to cultural expectations. In families in which men are expected to beat their wives when drunk, they will be inclined to do so. Such men have internalized distortions of masculinity rooted in their social upbringing. In many parts of the world, violence against women is the norm.
Social workers, as mentioned above, tend to treat battering holistically, with attention paid to biological, psychological, and social components. Interventions aimed at the biological level may include a referral to a substance abuse treatment center, to a self-help group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, or to a mental health center for a psychiatric evaluation.
Psychologically, treatment of battering men is geared to helping them replace irrational thought patterns involving jealousy and control issues with more functional thinking and behavior. A positive cognitive approach may also help them abandon their egocentric worldview as they learn to tap into their own inner strengths and acknowledge the good in others.
Treatment for batterers begins with establishing a relationship and motivating the participants to work on their issues. Strategies of motivational enhancement are highly effective in work with reluctant clients who have been court-ordered into treatment. Motivational interviewing directs interventions toward the client’s individual level of readiness to change. (Learn about these techniques at www.motivationalinterview.org ).
A minority of the batterers have a character disorder such as antisocial personality that makes them unsuitable for treatment. These types can be weeded out through standardized psychological tests. Experiments conducted by psychologists have demonstrated that these types of batterers lack normal emotional responses to the pain of others, that they are completely insensitive. Such men are not considered amenable to change, and could pose a threat to all concerned.
Treating battering men in groups attends to the social side of treatment. Ideally, men’s batterer groups will be led by a male/female team. Ideally a male co-facilitator will model attitudes and behaviors for the group members.
The challenges facing the leader of a male batterers group are many. First, there is much defensiveness to overcome. And secondly, as is typical of victimizers, many of these men perceive themselves as victims: victims of the system, of the mass media, and of their partners. Accordingly, a study of the Power and Control Wheel can be expected to have little meaning for them.
A strengths approach makes use of personal narratives to help clients discover where their fears and distrusts are coming from, while simultaneously coming to recognize some of their hidden strengths. An exploration of family-of-origin issues may be elicited in this way as well. Group feedback is invaluable in helping members develop insight concerning their tendencies to overreact to certain situations that arise in a relationship.
An effective strategy is to invite victim-offender panels to give a presentation before the group. Panel members may be battered women who are unknown to group members. The panel might also include men who were victims of child abuse. In hearing the stories of pain and suffering that the crimes of violence engendered, offenders not only may get in tune with their own past victimization, but often they may feel empathy for the victims as people who were hurt by the careless or cruel behavior of others.
Social workers are uniquely capable of working with these issues from a holistic perspective. They frequently work with male batterers in individual and group situations. They also, even more frequently, work with women who have been victimized by their spouses and partners. They are aware, therefore, of the magnitude of domestic violence, of the need for treatments of proven effectiveness to put a stop to such violence, and to support healthy relationships.
(^ This is an article by Dr. Katherine van Wormer, who is active and civil rights and peace movements and has recently published a two set series on human behavior and social environment)
Grief and Loss Tip Sheet – Three Questions About Widows, Widowers, and Their Relationships
By LeslieBeth (LB) Wish, Ed.D, MSS=====Introduction=====Dr. L.B. (LeslieBeth) Wish is a psychologist and social worker. Wish. She has been a speaker for non-profit, corporate and university organizations. Dr. Wish offers sound, research-based relationship advice that makes sense — specializing in issues such as smart dating, women’s relationship advice, career coaching, healthy families, sexual dysfunction, and leadership training. To learn more about Dr. Wish please visit her Web site: http://www.lovevictory.com/.
Few of us want to be alone in our later years, yet anyone who is married or in a long-term committed relationship knows that the chance of facing widowhood is high—especially for women who live slightly longer. Here are the three top questions of many widows and widowers.
Q. Should I date or look for love again—and how soon?
Several studies indicate that widowers begin to date by around the sixth month. Women tend to wait until approximately the ninth month. However, these numbers are just an average. The range of time is much greater—some people never date again and others date by the third month.
But time plays only one part in the decision of when to date. Studies also reveal that the degree of happiness in the relationship can affect how soon a person feels comfortable dating or falling in love again. A widowed partner who comes from a mutually satisfying relationship tends to take longer to find love. That person knows what it takes to sustain fulfillment and growth. The commitment to each other has taught the importance of recognizing needs and priorities—and the newly widowed doesn’t want to compromise.
On the other hand, a person who was not happy in the previous relationship tends to date and look for love more quickly. The person knows that time is running out. These widower and widows often think, “I want to know what love is before I die.”
If you are widowed, however, your best strategy is to do what feels comfortable. Give yourself permission to live life again. Life is most definitely short, and most spouses or partners want the surviving person to be happy. And don’t forget that wildcard pair of luck and timing. Just because you stumble across someone who is right for you soon after widowhood doesn’t mean you weren’t happy previously. Finally, regardless of your age, date smart. Take your time to get to know the person, date as friends first and don’t lend any money.
Q. What do I do if my grown kids don’t like my new partner—or even the idea of my dating?
Losing a spouse is difficult enough, and when grown children cannot accept parental dating and new love, the surviving spouse feels as though he or she is losing the entire family. The bad news is that the surviving spouse should heed the family’s warnings. The good news is that the surviving spouse should NOT heed the family’s warnings.
What should a widowed spouse do? That spouse should begin by valuing all input—but also keeping an eye on why the children are not supportive. Children, especially grown ones, might have difficulty “changing emotional gears.” They might not be able to imagine anyone else living in the family home or kissing the parent. If the new love is very different in personality from the deceased spouse, the adult children might have especial difficulties accepting the new person. These children often have a set view of the parent’s marriage, and seeing a very different kind of love choice can disrupt their beliefs about men, women, love and marriage. Sound advice for the surviving partner includes:
- Take your time to fall in love. Get to know your new partner.
- Tell your children that you will always value and remember their parent.
- Explain to your children that you and their deceased parent talked about wanting the survivor to “move on” in life, including finding love again.
- In the beginning, don’t express physical affection to the new love in front of the children.
- Don’t immediately move your new love into your home—or move into his or hers.
Other times, however, grown children do have legitimate concerns, which include:- Dating and becoming serious too soon
- Not knowing the person very well
- Choosing a poor match to avoid being alone. Poor matches might be a person with substance abuse or mental health problems or someone who expects the widowed spouse to take on the emotional and financial responsibility for the new love’s children—especially troubled children.
- Lending or giving money or rescuing the new love from his difficult life.
Q. I’m part of the sandwich generation, so how do I deal with living with my daughter’s family?It’s not unusual for surviving spouses to move in with adult children and family. Sometimes, the surviving spouse has financial or health needs. Regardless of the reasons for becoming a “sandwich generation” family where grandparents, parents and children all live together, this newly formed family must develop House Rules.
Pro-active families have most likely already developed chores and expectations for their children, and they should now develop new ones in response to the changes in the family. For example, widows might be expected to take care of their own linens or buy their own food.
Often, the widowed parent moves in with the extended family because he or she requires assistance with living. The widowed person might be physically fragile or mentally limited due to events such as strokes or the onset of dementia. Families, as well as the widower or widower, frequently underestimate these medical needs and are later frustrated at the demands of care.
Consequently, the addition of the widowed parent means that the House Rules need to be adjusted to the new circumstances, especially emotional issues. Usually, when a widowed parent moves into the adult child’s home, the current or dormant problems in the parent-child relationship get activated. For example, if the parent and adult child are—or were–argumentative and critical of each other, they risk bringing that kind of relationship into the adult child’s home.
The surviving widows, adult children and grandchildren should develop together new guidelines of behavior and words—and post them in the kitchen. Instead of singling out one person and seeing that person in a negative light, families can come together and write rules that build positive behaviors and beliefs.
Keep the focus on solutions-with-love rather than complaints. Examples of emotional House Rules might include:
- Be kind.
- Respect differences.
- No unsolicited advice.
- No criticism.
- No secrets.
- Be a role model.
- Don’t tattle. Instead, ask the person how the two of you can work on a solution together.
- Everyone is in charge of his or her happiness.
- See offers to help in areas such as medical or physical needs as offers of care and love—and not control.
- Seek nursing, medical or psychological help as soon as you feel frustrated or overwhelmed or when your solutions aren’t working.
Widowhood may be an expected life phase, but experiencing it is never easy for any of the family members. Hopefully, these answers will help you start thinking and acting differently.(^ This is an article written by Leslie Beth who is known to have worked extensively with single mothers and stepfamilies. This article illustrates a social worker putting into consideration a client's situation and where they are coming from.) This video is an example of HBSE on the mezzo/macro level with students who advocate on behalf of members of the LGBT community having representation in Columbia University's Advisory Council. This YouTube Video shows HBSE at work in an ordinary life. The video shows a correlations between an individual's reaction to a crisis and the life experiences they had previously. HBSE shows how an individual's history can affect their dealing with a psychosocial crisis, such as death. This article shows an issue that social workers often deal with, domestic violence, and puts it in a perspective that considers all aspects of human behavior in the social environment.
Article: INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE: AN HBSE PERSPECTIVE.
Article from:Journal of Social Work Education Article date:March 22, 1999Author:BEGUN, AUDREY L.CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Council On Social Work Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to Customer Support. (Hide copyright information)
VIOLENCE AMONG INTIMATE PARTNERS is a multicausal, multifaceted phenomenon (Johnson, 1996; McKenry, Julian, & Gavazzi, 1995; Mrazek & Haggerty, 1994), and no single theoretical approach has proven sufficient in satisfactorily explaining it (Gelles & Loeske, 1993b). Fortunately, the field of intimate partner violence research has evolved to a point where now the interactive nature of relevant factors can be considered (McKenry et al., 1995). Social work educators need to identify suitable means of educating students about intimate partner violence--means that include frameworks and models encompassing its complex biopsychosocial dynamics. This need stems largely from the importance of the issue to U.S. society and to the social work profession, and is indicated by the frequency, intensity, pervasiveness, and concomitants of such violence (Brown, A., 1997; Straus & Gelles, 1990). In addition to the need for students to understand this issue for its own sake, presenting this content serves as a rich medium for students to practice complex problem solving and critical-thinking skills.
A rich tradition of teaching about intimate partner violence exists through several distinct causal theories. For example, there are resources in the professional literature that help students distinguish between the many etiological theories and models, including: theories of social stress, power, and dependency (Wallace, 1996); theories about socialization, biology, relationship factors, problems in living, or individual differences in personality and psychopathology (Barnett, Miller-Perrin, & Perrin, 1997); the psychiatric model, social-situational model, social learning theory, resource theory, ecological perspective, and patriarchy model (Gelles & Cornell, 1990); macro and micro theories (Gondolf, 1993); and psychological, sociological, and feminist perspectives (Gelles & Loeske, 1993a). Because it relies solely upon presentations that simply discriminate between theories, a serious risk accompanies this approach to teaching about complex social issues. It may encourage students to adopt inappropriate strategies toward theory selection, because students are likely to either (1) reject theory as useless or irrelevant, (2) fall into theoretical dogmatism, adopting a particular theory as absolute truth with universal applicability, or (3)embrace an eclectic approach in which the process of combining theories is unsystematic, undisciplined, and poorly informed (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 1998). Instead, some authors recommend that educators promote a "critically reflective approach" to theory (Robbins et al., 1998).
This article presents a developmental framework for educating social work students about the dynamics of intimate partner violence. This framework represents a critically reflective and multifactoral approach to synthesizing the various models of intimate partner violence. The vulnerability/resilience and risk/safety approach (1) requires students to consider a particular social problem in a multidimensional person-in-environment manner, (2) encourages adoption of a prevention perspective, (3) allows integration of a diverse body of literature and diverse perspectives, and (4)presents a framework with relevance to a variety of HBSE education topics.
The framework presented here is structured largely in accordance with the vulnerability, risk, and resilience framework for HBSE education offered by Begun (1993). Once a social issue is defined using this approach, the vulnerability continuum, risk continuum, and the interaction of the two are all analyzed (see Figure 1). Each component of the teaching approach is presented with relevant content from the intimate partner violence literature.
[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Problem Definition
The first step in a vulnerability/resilience and risk/safety approach calls for clear definition and identification of the social problem being predicted or prevented--in this case, violence in intimate partner relationships. The term intimate partner has been adopted here to refer to marital, domestic/cohabitative, and intimate dating relationships; it encompasses heterosexual, gay, and lesbian intimate partnerships. The term violence, in this analysis, refers to a broad, extended continuum of behaviors, including threats and actual incidents of physical aggression specifically directed at another person (e.g., hitting, pushing, biting, threatened use of a weapon). It also includes some areas of behavior that are not always addressed: any form of forced sexual contact, destruction of personal property, and threats against a person's loved ones (children, parents, siblings, pets, friends, co-workers, etc.). The violence continuum also includes abusive behaviors that occur within intimate partnerships, such as controlling choices and resources, humiliation and denigration, harassment, stalking, coercion, and so forth.
At the point of problem definition, it would be useful to present social work students with exercises in locating local, state, regional, national, and international statistics regarding the incidence and prevalence of intimate partner violence (e.g., those available through state coalition offices or a national hotline).(1) Discussions of the results of their search efforts should include analysis of the limitations associated with the various sources of the data (e.g., definitional confounds, causes of under-reporting). Students for whom this is a relatively new topic may benefit from viewing some of the excellent educational videos, including readily accessible and contemporary public service advertisements (e.g., Safe at Home(2), National Domestic Violence Hotline, or state coalition media campaigns).
Vulnerability/Resiliency Continuum
The next step in this approach involves identification of the recognized vulnerability and resiliency factors associated with the problem. The continuum of vulnerabilities and resiliencies refers to those inherent factors that individuals "bring" to any situation: for example, the intrinsic characteristics contributed through genetics, biology, and constitution; personal history and past experiences; and individual attributes, cognitions, social skills, early developmental events, personality and temperament, and disabilities and abilities (Begun, 1993). Each of these categories represent both elements of resiliency and vulnerability. These categories are explored with reference to the three domains of intimate partner violence: individuals who are violent, individuals toward whom violence is directed, and family systems that embody intimate partner violence. Table 1 presents the vulnerability and resiliency factors across the domains.
This YouTube Video shows HBSE at work on a mezzo-macro level with students advocating for their right to maintain certain classes of their interest in their curriculum of have representatives from the LGBT community in their council.http://academic.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0534608310_15399.http:
academic.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0534608310_15399.http://academic.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0534608310_15399.http://academic.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0534608310_15399.http://academic.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0534608310_15399. Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment, 6th ed.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C007405/
http://www.crimemagazine.com/hiding-plain-sight-psyche-serial-killers
www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205520979.pdf
This is an excerpt from a book titled, Human Behavior and the Social Environment and the Paradigms which touches on the job of a social worker in relation to handling a client's problems in a particular manner.
The speaker bring up valid points about the root of child's problem often coming from their environment. He comes up with methods for parents to try and follow in order to evaluate the situation instead of making it worse, which I believe correlates to the responsibility of a social worker.
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I found the video to be both interesting and important because these are stereotypes that society instills in us at an early age. They can be extremely detrimental as we get older because we are always compared to these stereotypes and are characterized by how well we fit them.